We all have a story. This one, for me, just so happens to be a long one. It’s taken me years to get to where I am today and to fully accept that this journey is, indeed, a lifestyle. That it’s intentional, mindful, daily hard work, but if practiced consistently and with great care, the outcome can be life changing.
There is no wrong or right way to go about this journey. Wellness is about living your best life in a healthy balanced way and how you chose to go about doing that, is up to you. As long as you’re treating yourself with kindness and love and giving your body what it needs and deserves, the journey is yours. However you want it to be.
My wellness journey started in a therapist’s office. After many months of denying that I had issues, despite my weight loss and obsessive behaviors around food, I finally realized I needed to change. I began to coach myself and retrain my mindset to one that accepted the food that I loved and celebrated the changes in my body as a sign of maturity and strength.
Before I had children I clocked a lot hours in the gym. I worked out six days a week. I would spend 2 hours at the gym and was running 20-40 miles a week. I was eating well and thought I had this wellness thing all figured out. Only I didn’t. Wellness is all about living a healthy balanced life–mind, body, and soul. I had my workout routine down so well I could literally do it with my eyes closed. I felt a huge sense of accomplishment because I was seeing changes, yet I stressed when I had to miss a day. My routine became such an obsession that it became this unbalanced ship that had me struggling just to keep it afloat. That’s when I realized I needed to make a change once again and bring balance back into my life.
It wasn’t long after this realization when I found out Aaron and I were expecting. I knew I needed to change things up, and well, change presented itself in a really big way. I worked out during my pregnancy with but allowed myself to slow down and embrace the changes that pregnancy naturally welcomed. Pregnancy was the most beautiful experience of my life up to that point and I learned so much about myself during that time.
I never did go back to the rigid workout routine I once had. And for me, that’s what I needed. After becoming a mom the workout schedule I once had wasn’t feasible for my family’s and I was okay with that. While pregnancy welcomed changes, so did postpartum. Changes so great, in fact, I felt unprepared.
I was fortunate to be able to nurse my daughters until their first birthday and beyond. What I didn’t know is how much it would take from my body. While I tried to keep up on eating and the calories required for nursing, it didn’t ever seem enough. Desperate I made an appointment to see my doctor and pleaded to get answers for why I kept losing weight. Thinking the worse, and after a series of tests, I discovered I had a hormonal imbalance so great that it was affecting my metabolism and made it difficult to gain weight and keep the weight on. I was given the green light by my doctor to continue to breastfeed, which is what I wanted, but was advised to triple my daily calorie intake. And so I did just that.
My wellness journey during this time of my life looked very different than what it does now and that’s okay. I needed to do what I needed to do to stay healthy and on top of my body’s needs, so working out sort of took a backseat.
Fast forward to postpartum after my third pregnancy, I was ready for a change. I wanted to feel strong in my body again and try to heal my diastasis recti from pregnancy. So I jumped back into it. I started with the the exercises I knew and what felt comfortable, but quickly realized that my old routine needed a lot of modification because some of the same exercises I once did weren’t good for my diastasis recti. In fact, when I started to train again my condition got worse. I had to learn a new way, which was both exciting and overwhelming because I didn’t know where to start.
I turned to personal trainers, doctors, and researched ways to strengthen my condition. I focused on areas I wanted to improve so it was less overwhelming when I started. For me, that was my core and booty. Yes, ladies, this mama want to enhance the bum! Overall though, I just wanted to feel stronger and put on some healthy weight.
For years I told myself that home workouts weren’t for me. That I get too distracted, because I do. That my kids would interrupt me too much, because they do. That I wouldn’t be able to achieve results without going to the gym, because I didn’t know how to do it otherwise. I used every excuse under then sun why it wouldn’t work until one day I stopped feeding myself that bullshit and found myself on a cold February morning resorting to my laundry room to attempt something that felt bigger than myself and beyond my comfort zone. I didn’t know exactly what I was doing when I started, but knew if I took the time and allowed room to grow and learn that I would discover something stronger and bigger than I was.
I’ll be answering all your questions, sharing my schedule, and tips to help you get started later this week. Getting stronger together, one workout at a time is a new series here on this blog.
My getting stronger together, one workout at a time series will feature tips to help you get started on your very own journey. I will share what helps me stay motivated. What I do on days that I’m not feeling it and how to carry a healthy balance in your life when I comes to fitness. Not only will you walk away, hopefully, being inspired by some of my workouts but I will have recipes for you to try and explore as well. The key to any wellness journey is being mindful about how we treat, condition, and nourish our bodies. Mind and soul included.
I am so excited to start this journey and new series with you. I hope you will accept this as an invitation and walk this wellness journey with me. It’s always more fun doing things together. So join me in getting stronger together, one workout at a time!